Method and system for managing interactive communications campaign with reduced customer-to-agent connection latency

ABSTRACT

A web-based hosted solution (a managed service or system) through which business entities create and manage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns that afford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a call center. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the system implements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistent telephony connection is established and maintained between the system infrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent may handle multiple customers while avoiding an ACD hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-side hold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of the infrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to be connected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (on the service side) do not impair the connections that are being established and maintained to the agents. The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of a client. A “campaign” refers to a series of calls to a contact list using one or more sub-campaigns. A sub-campaign associates a list of contacts, a script, and a timeframe.

BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

This disclosure relates generally to a method and system for managinginteractive communication campaigns over a computer network, such as theInternet.

2. Description of the Related Art

It is known to provide a web-based hosted solution through whichbusiness entities create and manage interactive or notificationcommunications campaigns. An example of an interactive communicationscampaign is a telephone campaign to determine whether a target recipientdesires to transfer a credit card balance to a new account, a campaignto remind a recipient that a credit card payment is due and to offer therecipient an opportunity to speak with a customer representativeconcerning any payment issues, or the like. The hosted solutiontypically is implemented as an application (or “managed”) serviceprovider. One or more business entities (“clients”) that desire to usethe service typically register and access the service through an on-line(e.g., web-based) portal. In one representative use scenario, themanaged service provider entity provides outbound telemarketing serviceson behalf of participating clients. The campaign typically isprovisioned by the client. Thus, for example, using a web-basedinterface, a participating client defines a script for the campaign,imports a set of contacts, and defines one or more parameters thatgovern how the campaign is to be run. At a designated time, the serviceprovider initiates the campaign, e.g., by providing the contacts to aset of telephone servers that set-up and manage the telephone calls tothe targets of the campaign. During a given outbound call, as notedabove, a recipient (a “customer”) may be afforded an option to connectto a contact center, e.g., to speak to a customer representative. Insuch implementations, the hosted solution typically is integrateddirectly with the contact center's on-premises automatic calldistributor (ACD).

BRIEF SUMMARY

The subject matter herein describes a web-based hosted solution (amanaged service or system) through which business entities create andmanage communications campaigns, such as interactive campaigns thatafford target recipients an opportunity to be connected to a callcenter. To reduce latency of customer-to-agent connections, the systemimplements an agent stay-on-line function by which a persistenttelephony connection is established and maintained between the systeminfrastructure and an available agent. In this manner, the agent mayhandle multiple customers while avoiding a contact center ACD (automatedcall distributor) hold queue. In addition, preferably a service-sidehold queue also is established and maintained on the service-side of theinfrastructure. This hold queue maintains calls that are waiting to beconnected to available agents. It ensures that any customer abandons (onthe service side) do not impair the connections that are beingestablished and maintained to the agents.

The managed service carries out a communications campaign on behalf of aclient. A “campaign” may have associated therewith one or more“sub-campaigns”. A campaign typically has a preset configuration thatapplies to all of its sub-campaigns. Using a Web interface, a clientloads a list of contacts that will be called and associates that listwith a script, which defines what will happen during a phone call to acontact. A “sub-campaign” refers to one or more passes through a contactlist that has been bound to a script and that has been associated with atimeframe Thus, a “sub-campaign” associates a list of contacts, ascript, and a timeframe. Preferably, a given agent also is associatedwith a skill group, which is a grouping based on one or more businessrequirements. When a new sub-campaign is created, a skill group isassigned to that sub-campaign. The schedule for the skill group thendetermines the calling rate at any given time. As more agents come onduty, typically the calling rate increases to keep those agents busy.When fewer agents are on duty, however, calling rate decreases to avoidlong hold queues for the customers that are being contacted. A singleskill group can be assigned to multiple sub-campaigns at the same time.Calls from each sub-campaign preferably are sent to any available agentin the skill group. Preferably, there is a service-side hold queue for aparticular skill group running a particular sub-campaign.

The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent features of thesubject matter. These features should be construed to be merelyillustrative. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applyingthe disclosed subject matter in a different manner or by modifying thesubject matter as will be described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a service provider infrastructure forimplementing a managed communications campaign service;

FIGS. 2A-2B illustrates how an interactive communications campaign iscreated and managed in the service provider infrastructure illustratedin FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates representative event sequences that occur when acustomer request call is initiated as well as when an agent connect callis initiated;

FIG. 4 illustrates how a stay-on-line function reduces customer-to-agentlatency according to one feature of the disclosed subject matter;

FIG. 5 illustrates a preferred inter-TMS architecture for the serviceprovider system; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a state diagram for a particular agent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a representative service provider or systemarchitecture, which in the preferred embodiment is implemented in oracross one or more data centers. A data center typically hasconnectivity to the Internet. The system provides a web-based hostedsolution through which business entities create and managecommunications campaigns. Campaigns may be interactive ornon-interactive. Representative campaigns include, without limitation,account renewal campaigns, balance transfer or consolidation offercampaigns, billing issue campaigns, credit card activation campaigns,fraud alert campaigns, payment or past due reminder campaigns, phone orcustomer survey campaigns, debt recovery campaigns, late payment withright party verification campaigns, payment reminder with direct connectto call center campaigns, appointment reminder campaigns, welcome callcampaigns, account renewal campaigns, affinity cross-sell/rewardsprogram campaigns, crisis management/disaster recovery campaigns, newproduct offer campaigns, inquiry/web follow-up campaigns, contractrenewal campaigns, service availability notification campaigns,promotional offer campaigns, service delivery confirmation campaigns,and the like. The particular type of campaign is not a limitation orfeature of the invention.

A business entity (a “client”) user has a machine such as a workstationor notebook computer. Typically, a business entity user accesses theservice provider architecture by opening a web browser on the machine toa URL associated with a service provider domain. Access may also bethrough an automated process, such as via a Web services applicationprogramming interface (API). Where a web browser is used, the clientauthenticates to the managed service in the usual manner, e.g., by entryof a username and password. The connection between the business entitymachine and the service provider infrastructure may be encrypted orotherwise secure, e.g., via SSL, or the like. Although connectivity viathe publicly-routed Internet is typical, the business entity may connectto the service provider infrastructure over any local area, wide area,wireless, wired, private or other dedicated network. As seen in FIG. 1,the service provider architecture 100 comprises an IP switch 102, a setof one or more web server machines 104, a set of one more applicationserver machines 106, a database management system 108, and a set of oneor more telephony server machines 110. A representative web servermachine 104 comprises commodity hardware (e.g., Intel-based), anoperating system such as Linux, and a web server such as Apache 2.x. Arepresentative application server machine 106 comprises commodityhardware, Linux, and an application server such as WebLogic 9.2 (orlater). The database management system 108 may be implemented as anOracle (or equivalent) database management package running on Linux. Arepresentative telephony server machine is an application server thatimplements appropriate software applications for call set-up, voiceprocessing, and other call connection and management activities. Anapplication may implement the Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP). Inthe alternative, a telephony server machine may execute an applicationserver in conjunction with one or more PSTN, VoIP and/or voiceprocessing cards that provide interconnectivity for telephone-basedcalling applications. In a card-based embodiment, a representative cardis a CG 6565 (or variant) series available from Dialogic, or anequivalent. Typically, a voice processing application port or card has afinite number of supported ports. In a high volume call environment,there may be several web server machines, several application servermachines, and a large number of telephony server machines. Although notshown in detail, the infrastructure may include a name service, FTPservers, MRCP (Media Resource Control Protocol) servers, load balancingappliances, other switches, and the like. Each machine typicallycomprises sufficient disk and memory, as well as input and outputdevices. The software environment on each machine includes a Javavirtual machine (JVM) if control programs are written in Java.Generally, the web servers 104 handle incoming business entityprovisioning requests, and they export a management interface that isdescribed in more detail below. The application servers 106 manage thebasic functions of generating campaign scripts, managing contacts, andexecuting campaigns. The telephony servers 110 handle mosttelephony-related functions including, without limitation, executingoutbound calls and forwarding calls to a contact center. The particularhardware and software implementation details described herein are merelyfor illustrative purposes are not meant to limit the scope of thepresent invention.

In a representative embodiment, a typical machine in the serviceinfrastructure is a processor-based server running Linux, and the serverincludes a telephone interface. A typical interface has up to 200 ports,and each port may be considered a separate telephone line. There aretypically a set of such servers operating at a given location (e.g., anInternet data center). The following is a typical operation of theservice. Using a Web browser or the Web service API, a client provisionsa campaign, provisioning a script to be played to a target customer. Thescope and content of the script will depend on the campaign. The clientalso provides the service provider with contact information for a set ofpersons, who are the target recipients of the campaign. In operation,the system batches a subset of those contacts to one of the machines inthe server farm. A control routine executing on the machine takes afirst contact in the subset and assigns the contact to an availableport. The script is then initiated and the interface card initiates acall over a port. When the recipient's phone is answered, the systemdetermines whether a human being has answered the call (as opposed to ananswering machine, a fax, or the like). If a human being has answered,the script plays a set of prompts (basically a set of scriptedquestions). During the call, if the target recipient takes a givenaction, a direct connect (DC) function is initiated. In particular, thesystem places the call on hold, opens up a separate line to a contactcenter telephone number (typically provisioned by the client), waits foran agent to respond, places the responding agent on hold, and thenbridges the customer to the agent. The system then disconnects. In analternative, the DC function may take place whether or not the recipientactively initiates it, e.g., by just having the system inform therecipient to “please hold” while the connection to the contact center isestablished by the service provider.

The contact center may be owned, operated or managed by a third party.In such a scenario, the agents may be described as being “un-owned”agents. The service provider may own, operate or manage the agentsdirectly. A representative call center includes automatic calldistribution (ACD) functions. As is well-known, an ACD is acomputer-implemented and controlled telephone system that distributescalls to call center agents equitably and gathers statistics about theagents. When the service provider controls and/or manages the agentsdirectly (sometimes referred to as “owned” agents, as contrasted with“un-owned” agents), the provider infrastructure may include a dialer,which is an automatic telephone dialing system. A dialer initiatesoutbound call from a list of telephone numbers, turns a call over to anagent when a human being responds, and gathers statistics about agents.Such ACD and dialer technologies are well-known.

Using the service provider infrastructure, a business entity can create,execute and manage a campaign. As noted above, a campaign may haveassociated therewith one or more “sub-campaigns.” Using a Web interface,a client loads a list of contacts who will be called and associates thatlist with a script. A “sub-campaign” refers to one or more passesthrough a contact list that has been bound to a script and that has beenassociated with a given timeframe. Thus, a “sub-campaign” associates atleast the following items: a list of contacts, a script, and atimeframe. Additional details regarding sub-campaigns are set forthbelow. As noted above, a script determines what will happen during aphone call. Typically, a script is formatted as XML and specifies asequence of audio prompts that are played and what happens when therecipient takes certain actions such as pressing a button on the phoneor speaking a response. As noted above, a direct connect to the contactcenter may be carried out automatically (merely when the systemdetermines that the call has been answered by other than an answeringmachine) and thus the script may designate this functionality. One ormore contact lists are stored in a contact database, and typically acontact list comprises a set of contacts. A contact typically is anindividual in the contact database, and this individual is sometimesreferred to as the “customer” (as, technically, the individual is acustomer of the client using the managed service). A contact can includehome, work or cell numbers, a client identifier, an email address, orthe like. Also, contacts typically include first name, last name,company and other information. With reference to FIGS. 2A-2B, and asdescribed above, a business entity connects to the service provider,authenticates, and then uses one or more applications to create, executeand manage the campaign. These applications execute on the applicationserver machines and operate in association with one or more databasesthat are supported within the database management system. Theseapplications include, for example, a contact management application 202,a campaign management engine 204, a scheduling engine 206, and ascripting engine 208. The contact management application 202 handles thereceipt and storage of the contact list(s) uploaded (e.g., via FTP orotherwise) to the system by or on behalf of the business entity client.The scripting engine 208 handles the creation and managing of thecampaign scripts, using instructions entered by or on behalf of thebusiness entity client via a web-based interface or Web services API.The campaign management engine 204 manages the campaign byinteroperating with the scheduling engine 206, which in turninteroperates with the telephony servers 205 to execute the campaign.The business entity client evaluates or monitors the campaign fromsummary, detail and/or custom reports generated by a reporting engineapplication 210. Campaign evaluation and monitoring may also beperformed via a Web-based user interface, or in an automated manner viaan API. Notification campaigns are executed using email servers 212 andSMS (or MMS) servers 214, or by other means, such as by telephone.

As also illustrated in FIGS. 2A-2B, after connecting an outbound call toa target customer 216, the customer may elect to be connected to thecontact center 218 (typically a third party call center) or the systemmay perform that direct connect automatically once it determines that ahuman being (as opposed to an answering machine) has answered theoutbound call. The system typically obtains information about thecontact center's performance during a given communications campaign,commonly without requiring a direct connection between theinfrastructure and a contact center's on-premises ACD. This enables themanaged service provider to integrate with both its business entityclients and with their associated contact center environments rapidlyand efficiently. The interconnectivity between the managed serviceprovider and the contact center may be “inferred” from how calls thatoriginate from the service provider to the target recipients (who haveexpressed an interest in being connected to the contact center) areactually handled. This “indirect” connectivity is illustrated in FIG. 2by the control engine 220, which can be provided in software as a set ofsoftware instructions executable on a processor. The engine isresponsible for dispatching calls at an appropriate rate while ensuringthat all customer-requested rule parameters (as described below) arehonored. Examples of such parameters include: number of agents availableat the call center, maximum hold time at the call center, client abandonrate prior to speaking to a call center, number of bad numbers reachedon the outbound dial, and so forth. Generally, for a given clientcampaign or sub-campaign, the engine 220 decides on an initial calldispatch rate based on the client-requested parameters (and, optionally,on historical data from like campaigns or sub-campaigns). Once thecampaign or sub-campaign, as the case may be, starts running, the engine220 monitors the parameters and ensures that they remain withintolerance. If an identified parameter exceeds the client-defined value,then a system action rule (e.g., adjusting the call dispatch rate,suspending the calls, or the like) is applied and any clientnotification requested is issued. Additional details regarding thefunctionality of the engine 220 are described in U.S. Publication No.2007/0172050, which is commonly-owned.

As noted above, preferably a web-based interface is provided to enable abusiness entity client to create a set of one or more management rulesthat, when triggered during the campaign, cause the infrastructure (and,in particular, certain control applications therein) to take certaincontrol actions in real-time, preferably based on campaign performance.

As used herein, the following terms have the associated meanings. A“campaign” refers to an overall series of calls to a contact list usingone or more sub-campaigns that use a given script. Campaigns also act astemplates for the sub-campaigns that are created under them. A campaigntypically has a preset configuration that applies to all of itssub-campaigns. As noted above, a “sub-campaign” refers to one or morepasses through a contact list using a script and that is constrained toa particular timeframe (or at a set of one or more such times). Asub-campaign typically runs under an existing campaign. A “script” asnoted above determines what happens during a phone call. Typically, thescript specifies a sequence of audio prompts that are played to a client(an end user who receives a call) and what happens (the contact centerconnection) when the recipient takes certain actions (such as pressing abutton on the phone or speaking an answer to a query). The script mayalso specify other actions, such as effecting a contact centerconnection automatically when detecting that a human being has answered.The nature and type of actions set forth in a script thus may be quitevaried, and this disclosure is not limited to any particular processflow within a script.

An “agent” typically is a call center operator. A “skill group” is a setof agents that are trained to handle a given script. In one embodiment,a skill group defines the number of agents who are scheduled to be onduty at various times of the day on various days of the week, as well asthe phone number to use to contact those agents. A skill group can beshared across multiple sub-campaigns or over multiple physicalfacilities (e.g., telephone numbers). A script may cause the routing ofdirect connect calls to different skill groups based on the path throughthe script. A client of the service may assign a skill group to asub-campaign when it creates the sub-campaign, whereupon the agents inthat skill group are then responsible for handling any incoming callsfor that sub-campaign. Agents in a skill group become “live” accordingto a schedule or upon login to the service provider. Thus, in oneembodiment a “live” agent is an agent that has been registered with theservice provider, e.g., using a supervisor dashboard or a contact centerschedule. An “unallocated” agent is an agent that is not yet allocatedto a sub-campaign. An “allocated” agent is an agent that is allocated toa sub-campaign. A “busy” agent is an agent on the telephone with aclient. An “available” agent is an agent waiting for a call. A “break”is a state when the agent is away from his or her station. The acronym“ACW” refers to “after-call-work” or agent processing, which occursafter a particular customer call is completed and before the agent isconnected to a new customer call.

In one embodiment, agents in a skill group are automatically allocatedto a particular sub-campaign based on a priority of each runningsub-campaign. Thus, for example, sub-campaigns with a higher priorityare given as many agents as they can use before a lower-prioritysub-campaign is considered. Sub-campaigns of equal priority areallocated agents according to a number of agents that can be used (orthe number of callable contacts) in a next time period (e.g., 5minutes). In the alternative, such prioritization of sub-campaigns neednot enforced across agents in a skill group, thereby enabling more equalaccess to the agents. The agents allocated to each sub-campaigntypically changes over time as the number of callable contacts changes(which affects the number of agents that can be used by eachsub-campaign). Preferably, the system adjusts calling rate for asub-campaign based on several factors: the number of agents currentlyallocated to the sub-campaign, the percentage of call attempts thatresult in a direct connect attempt, and an average length of asuccessful direct connect call. Typically, a skill group is based on oneor more business requirements. For example, skill groups may be based onskill type, language skills, skill level, or other such factors. When anew sub-campaign is created, a skill group is assigned to thatsub-campaign. The schedule for the skill group then determines thecalling rate at any given time. As more agents come on duty, typicallythe calling rate increases to keep those agents busy. When fewer agentsare on duty, however, calling rate decreases to avoid long hold queuesfor the customers. As noted above, a single skill group can be assignedto multiple sub-campaigns at the same time. Calls from each sub-campaignpreferably are sent to any available agent in the skill group, so agiven agent should be trained to handle calls from each of thesub-campaigns.

There may be different types of skill groups: a standard skill group, anenhanced shared mode skill group, and an enhanced agent mode skillgroup. The standard skill group typically is a skill group to which asingle phone number is assigned, and that number is a default phonenumber when there is no other number defined in the script. A standardskill group typically does not use a service-side hold queue, as definedbelow. With a standard skill group, agents always hang up after theclient call has completed. Caller ID (or, in the alternative, whisper)is used to generate an agent screen pop-up window (with the correctclient information) because agents hang up between calls. With anenhanced shared mode skill group, the agents typically conform to apre-defined schedule, and the schedule automatically changes the numberof agents throughout the day. In this configuration, agents share one ormore telephone numbers, and a schedule may be created for each phonenumber (alternatively, multiple phone numbers can share a schedule).Agents in the enhanced shared mode skill group use a service-side holdqueue (as described in more detail below), and agents have the option to“stay-on-line” (remain connected and to receive a next customer afterthe last customer hangs-up, as described in more detail below). Ifagents remain connected, caller ID typically is not used for the screenpop-up because caller ID cannot be changed after the first call theagent's phone has been placed. In the enhanced agent mode skill groupmode, contacts connect directly to a specific agent who has his or herown unique telephone number. Thus, when this type of skill group isconfigured, individual agents are added (by name) together with theassociated telephone numbers. In this configuration, each agent has aunique phone number, or each agent may be set up with a differentextension where one or more agents share the unique phone number. Aswith the standard and enhanced shared mode configurations, agent modeskill groups use a pre-defined schedule. Individual agents, however, caneach have a custom schedule or can participate in a common schedulegroup. The service provider can track individual agent activity in thismode, and agents use the hold queue and can stay-on-line as describedabove. In this mode, caller ID is not used for an agent screen pop-upwindow, and agents who are not actively allocated to a runningsub-campaign are identified as unassigned.

By way of background, FIG. 3 illustrates the customer-side and agentconnection latencies that may occur when a customer is contacted by thesystem and (at the customer's request or otherwise, such asautomatically) then connected to an un-owned agent. In this figure, theleft-side illustrates the typical details of the call (and theassociated call latencies) from the dialer to the customer, and theright-side illustrates the typical details of the separate call that ismade by the service provider to the agent (typically at the third partycontact center). The two sides of the figure are aligned from a temporalperspective. Looking first at the left-side, the customer call startswith a dispatch 302. After a queue time 304 (for the call set-up andconnection), the call reaches a live person (namely, the “client”) at306. After a prompt time 308 (the time needed to prompt the customerwith a particular request as indicated by the script), it is assumedthat the customer takes a given action to request a direct connect (DC)to the agent. This is indicated at 310. (In the alternative, as notedabove, the customer may simply be put on “hold” while the direct connectis initiated without requiring the prompt-response sequence. Thus, step308 might involve a “no action” situation). At this point, the customerhas to wait for the connection to be established. This is represented bythe hold time at 312. After a determination that an agent is ready at314, a “connect” occurs at 316, at which point the customer is connected(bridged) to the agent. After the customer or the agent hangs up, thecustomer call is disconnected at 320.

Meanwhile, and as shown in the right-hand side of the figure, the systemplaces a call to an agent. This is shown at 322. Until the agent call isanswered, a ring time period 324 exists. When the call is connected atthe ACD, it enters an ACD hold time 326 followed by a wait time (notshown). A determination then is made that there is a real customer readyto be handed off to an available agent. At 332, a whisper time (which isoptional) occurs during which the agent is provided information aboutthe client and the call. Thereafter, at 334, the “connect” occurs, andthis corresponds to the “connect” on the left-side of the figure. Thus,the customer is now bridged to the agent. After the corresponding directconnect time 336 expires, the agent call is disconnected at 338. Afterthe hang-up, the agent performs his or her after-call-work (ACW) 340.The agent then returns to his or her “available” state.

According to a feature of the described subject matter, it is desired toreduce the client-side latency and to provide more efficient use ofagents. In particular, it is desired to provide a nearly immediatehandoff of the customer to an available agent whenever possible suchthat customer connect time is significantly reduced and the agent hasthe information he or she needs at the outset to facilitate the clientinteraction. This reduces the number of customer abandons, reduces agentidle time, and provides a more efficient and cost-effective solution forboth the business entity client and the service provider itself.

To this end, preferably a persistent connection maintained between theservice provider system and a given agent. This function is sometimesreferred to herein as “stay-on-line” because it obviates making aseparate agent call each time it might be desired to establish acustomer-agent interaction. The persistent connection may be establishedin an “on-demand” or “just-in-time” manner, i.e., when an availableagent is first needed to handle a direct connect, or the serviceprovider may pre-provision (or pre-configure) the agent in advance, suchas when an agent first indicates his or her availability. In eithercase, once the agent is “on-line” to the service provider, the agentconnection is maintained for so long as possible so that a new customerdirect connect can be provided to that agent as soon as the agentcompletes ACW from a prior (just completed call). Thus, and in thecontext of FIG. 3, when an agent stays-on-line in this manner, timeperiods 322, 324, and 326 (call set-up, ring time, and ACD hold time inan ACD hold queue) are advantageously avoided for subsequent calls (or,if the system calls the agent before the first customer request, thenfor all calls). With the stay-on-line operation, the agent logs into theservice provider system (e.g., via a web browser-based application) orsimply logs into the native contact center system itself, and theservice provider system then establishes (or can establish, as needed)and maintains a persistent telephony connection to the agent. The agentprovides his or her status to the service provider system or the nativecontact center system. Upon a direct connect request (from a customer),either the service provider or the contact center system provides ascreen pop-up (or other notification) to the agent and then connects thecustomer to the agent. The screen pop-up (described in more detailbelow) obviates the whisper time 332 shown in FIG. 3, because thecustomer call information can be provided visually (via the pop-updisplay window). In an alternative, the stay-on-line feature may be usedwithout the screen pop-up, in which case a whisper may be used. Uponcompletion of the call (including any necessary ACW), the agent thenindicates (e.g., by selecting a button) he or she is ready for the nextcall (which corresponds to 330). As can be seen then, with stay-on-linefunctionality, there is no requirement that the system place a separatenew call to the agent or wait for a connection or ACD hold time.

FIG. 4 illustrates a typical agent handoff comparison when thestay-on-line feature is implemented. The timing shown is merelyrepresentative. In the first timeline (without the feature), there isidle time, ring time, ACD hold time, whisper time, talk time, and ACWtime. With the stay-on-line feature enabled, however, there is only idletime, whisper time (which itself may be avoided using the screen pop, asdescribed in more detail below), talk time, and ACW time. Thus, thefunction provides much more efficient use of agents, and much reducedcustomer call latency. A main advantage of this approach is that theagent connection can be initiated before a customer requests aconnection to an agent. This approach also avoids the loss of the agentin the ACD hold queue position when a customer abandons the call.Further, an agent that handles multiple customers in this manner (i.e.,without disconnecting from the service) avoids the ACD hold queue,further reducing customer hold times. To facilitate the stay-on-linefunctionality, preferably the system implements calls for both thecustomer call and agent call using a voice-over-IP infrastructure(VoIP). This is illustrated in FIG. 5. In this diagram, the serviceprovider system includes a first telephone management system (TMS A)that is used to establish calls to the call center agents, as well as asecond telephone management system (TMS B) that is used to establishcalls to the customer contacts. The system also includes a back-end, ashas been described. In this embodiment, inter-TMS communicationspreferably take place using VoIP connections as indicated. Although thisconfiguration is preferred, the system may also be implemented withoutinter-TMS VoIP, in which case the agents must be managed on a per-TMSbasis. Moreover, the above-described functionality does not require VoIPfor implementation.

A particular agent (typically as provisioned by skill group) maystay-on-line “never,” “when busy,” or “always.” When stay-on-line“never” is selected as an option, the system will hang-up on the agentafter a call is completed and then call the agent back as necessary. Thestay-on-line when busy (or when work available) option means that thefeature is enabled for the agent when there is work to do, i.e., anon-zero hold queue. The stay-on-line always options means that thefeature is enabled for the agent at all times after the agent has loggedinto the service provider (or the contact center ACD). The preferredoption is stay-on-line always. The particular stay-on-line option can beset on an per-agent basis, on a per-skill group basis, or on some otherbasis.

According to another feature, the service provider infrastructure (onits side, in contrast to the third party call center) includes a holdqueue. Physically, the hold queue is a portion of a service providerdatabase structure (or, in the alternative, some allocated physicalmemory) that is associated with a given sub-campaign and that is used to“hold” direct connect(s) waiting to be bridged to available agent(s) atthe contact center. This queue has been referred to above as theservice-side hold queue, which is in contrast to the ACD hold queue.While a hold queue is typically associated with a sub-campaign, this isnot a requirement, as there may be a hold queue associated with a set(or subset) of agents having a given skill group. Because there areoften multiple sub-campaigns (and/or skill groups, as the case may be),there are multiple hold queues. In one embodiment, the service-side holdqueue is associated with a particular skill group running on aparticular sub-campaign. A particular call on the customer side isplaced in the service-side hold queue (and maintained there) after thecustomer requests a direct connect in the event the service providerascertains (upon the DC) that no agent is then available to receive theparticular call. The “hold queue” ensures that, in the event thecustomer abandons, the persistent agent connection is not wasted.Another benefit of the hold queue is that an agent that stays on theline can then get the next customer from the hold queue itself. Bycombining the service-side hold queue with the stay-on-line agent, thesystem provides reduced customer connect-to-agent latency and ensuresthat agents are used more effectively.

The system preferably executes a program to provide an agent “portal” bywhich an administrator (e.g., a supervisor) can administer and manageagents. The portal typically includes an agent screen, and a supervisorscreen. A server component executes in the service provider systeminfrastructure, and a client component executes in the agent's desktop,preferably in a web browser. As noted above, when the system isoperating in the enhanced agent mode skill group configuration, thestatus of the individual agents can be viewed. This view containsinformation, such as the client contact with whom the agent is beingconnected. In this embodiment, a web page can be used as a screen pop topass information to the agent about the contact. Typically, an agentoperating in this mode has the following mutable attributes: skillgroup, telephone number, sub-campaign, and state (e.g., unallocated,available, busy, ACW, handoff, break, hold queue, or unavailable). Theagent also can be visualized from the perspective of his or heridentity, authentication information, permissions and access rights.Preferably, upon connection to the service provider or the appropriatecontact center system, the agent's screen is refreshed periodically(e.g., once per second). The server-client screen pop functionality maybe implemented in any convenient manner using existing technologies suchas Comet, AJAX, XMPP, and the like. Comet is a WWW architecture in whicha web server sends data to a client program (normally a web browser)asynchronously without any need for the client to explicitly request it.This allows for the creation of an event-driven web application. XMPPrefers to eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (f/k/a Jabber),which is an open, XML-based protocol for near real-time, extensibleinstant messaging (IM) and presence information (a/k/a buddy lists).XMPP is extensible and can support other features such as voice over IP(VoIP) and file transfer. In a representative embodiment, an agent has atelephony connection and an associated machine (e.g., a desktopcomputer, a laptop computer or other mobile computing device, or thelike) that comprises a web browser or other rendering engine that iscompatible with AJAX technologies (e.g., XHTML, XML, CSS, DOM, JSON, andthe like). AJAX technologies include XHTML (Extensible HTML) and CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) for marking up and styling information, the useof DOM (Document Object Model) accessed with client-side scriptinglanguages, the use of an XMLHttpRequest object (an API used by ascripting language) to transfer XML and other text data asynchronouslyto and from a server using HTTP), and use of XML or JSON (JavascriptObject Notation, a lightweight data interchange format) as a format totransfer data between the server and the client.

In operation, each agent is associated at the server with an agentobject. Every agentPortal.heartBeatInterval, the agent's browser sendsthe server an AJAX-style message to update the server; this represents aheartbeat. Periodically, e.g., once per minute, all agents that arelogged-in to the server are evaluated to see if their respectiveheartbeats are older than an agentPortal.sessionTimeOutSecs (e.g., oneminute). If the heartbeat for a particular agent is older, then a pollertransitions the agent to lostConnection. If the heartbeat thereafterreactivates, the system will automatically transition the agent to anavailable state. If an agent object has been in a lostConnection statefor more than agentPortal.autoLogOutSecs (e.g., 15 minutes), the systemwill automatically log the agent out after anagentPortal.sessionTimeOutSecs (e.g., one minute). Also, after an agenthas been on a break for more than agentPortal.maxBreakSeconds, he/shewill automatically be logged out.

FIG. 6 illustrates a state machine for a typical agent. In this statemachine, the whispering state (as shown) may be omitted.

The following describes a typical life cycle for an un-owned agent. Oncean agent enters the live state, he or she is typically unallocated. Oncethe agent is allocated to a specific sub-campaign, he or she enters anavailable state. The system then establishes and maintains thepersistent telephony connection to the agent, as previously described.Once a customer request occurs (a client has requested a directconnect), the agent enters various states, such as busy. After the callis completed, the agent enters (or may enter) the ACW state, after whichthe agent transitions back to the available state where he or she canreceive a next call.

As previously noted, the hardware and software systems in which thesubject matter herein is illustrated are merely representative. Thedescribed functionality may be practiced, typically in software, on oneor more machines. Generalizing, a machine typically comprises commodityhardware and software, storage (e.g., disks, disk arrays, and the like)and memory (RAM, ROM, and the like). The particular machines used in thenetwork are not a limitation. A given machine includes networkinterfaces and software to connect the machine to a network in the usualmanner. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the subject disclosure may beimplemented as a managed service (e.g., in an ASP model) using theillustrated set of machines, which are connected or connectable to oneor more networks. More generally, the service is provided by an operatorusing a set of one or more computing-related entities (systems,machines, processes, programs, libraries, functions, or the like) thattogether facilitate or provide the inventive functionality describedabove. In a typical implementation, the service comprises a set of oneor more computers. A representative machine is a network-based serverrunning commodity (e.g. Pentium-class) hardware, an operating system(e.g., Linux, Windows, OS-X, or the like), an application runtimeenvironment (e.g., Java, ASP), and a set of applications or processes(e.g., Java applets or servlets, linkable libraries, native code, or thelike, depending on platform), that provide the functionality of a givensystem or subsystem. As described, the service may be implemented in astandalone server, or across a distributed set of machines. Typically, aserver connects to the publicly-routable Internet, a corporate intranet,a private network, or any combination thereof, depending on the desiredimplementation environment.

Having described our invention, what we now claim is set forth below.

1. A method operative in a service provider infrastructure through whichbusiness entities create and manage interactive communicationscampaigns, wherein a given campaign comprises one or more sub-campaigns,the service provider infrastructure in communication with a contactcenter having a set of agents, the method comprising: upon a givenoccurrence, establishing and thereafter maintaining a persistenttelephony connection to an agent that has been associated with a givensub-campaign; during the given sub-campaign, initiating outbound callsto one or more customers; during a given call to a first customer,determining whether the first customer should be connected to an agentat the contact center; if the first customer should be connected to theagent at the contact center, connecting the first customer to the agentover the persistent telephony connection that was previouslyestablished.
 2. The method as described in claim 1 further including:determining whether the first customer has terminated an interactionwith the agent; if the first customer has terminated an interaction withthe agent, connecting a second customer to the agent over the persistenttelephony connection that was previously established.
 3. The method asdescribed in claim 2 wherein the second customer is connected to theagent after the agent enters and completes an after call work (ACW)state associated with the first customer call.
 4. The method asdescribed in claim 1 further including providing the agent withinformation about the first customer.
 5. The method as described inclaim 4 wherein the information about the first customer is provided ina display interface.
 6. The method as described in claim 4 wherein theinformation about the first customer is provided over a whisperconnection.
 7. The method as described in claim 4 wherein theinformation about the first customer is provided over an applicationprogramming interface (API).
 8. The method as described in claim 1further including establishing and maintaining a hold queue in theservice provider infrastructure, wherein the hold queue is associatedwith the sub-campaign.
 9. The method as described in claim 8 furtherincluding placing a call in the hold queue if a customer should beconnected to an agent at the contact center but an agent is not thenavailable.
 10. The method as described in claim 1 wherein at least asubset of the agents are associated with a skill group.
 11. The methodas described in claim 1 wherein the skill group is associated with oneor more sub-campaigns.
 12. The method as described in claim 1 whereinthe step of determining whether the first customer should be connectedto an agent at the contact center determines whether the first customerhas taken a given action.
 13. The method as described in claim 12wherein the given action is initiating a direct connect request.